Informant Says Dea Didn`t Act In Drug Tips

February 07, 1987|By Roxanne Brown.

Roger Nelson, an alleged drug smuggler-turned government informant, testified Friday that he and a group of other Bahamas-based pilots provided information to federal agents to make seizures of ``over 4,000 pounds of cocaine in four days, and they missed them all.``

Testifying during a hearing on a motion to dismiss Chicago drug charges against him, Nelson said that Miami-based federal agents for the Drug Enforcement Administration failed to act on several tips that would have netted them several drug-smuggling suspects and the 4,000 pounds of cocaine.

Nelson said one of those tips, in September, 1985, involved an alleged planned delivery of cocaine by Carlos Lehder Rivas, a narcotics underworld kingpin who was seized in Colombia and arraigned Thursday in Florida on drug charges.

Prosecutors contend that Rivas operated the world`s largest cocaine-smuggling ring.

Under questioning by his attorney, Aldo Botti, Nelson said: ``I told them Carlos Lehder, the man in charge of the whole cartel, was on the plane. I told them this (the seizure) would be 1,900 pounds of cocaine--10 percent of the annual take.`` Nelson said narcotic agents failed to act.

Nelson, who operates a skydiving school in Sandwich, Ill., supplied information to the Miami DEA about drug-smuggling activities from Cistern Cay, a remote island in the Bahamas.

He was indicted last May along with 16 others on charges of smuggling millions of dollars worth of drugs into the Chicago area from South and Central America, and from the Carribean.

During his cross-examination of Nelson, Assistant U.S. Atty. Robert Bleisblatt accused Nelson of believing himself to be ``God`s gift to law enforcement.``

And a Miami DEA supervisor, Frank Chellino, who testified Tuesday, said Nelson`s group did help with their operations but that he could not say the group played a significant role in slowing down the flow of narcotics in the area.

Nelson and others in the group said they gave the information in hopes of securing leniency on drug indictments and sentences they faced.

Nelson is asking that the indictment against him be dropped because, he said, DEA agents promised him immunity.

Pointing to a map of the region, Nelson told the court that smugglers entered the island by flying low, so as not to be detected by radar.

He called the island ``an unpenetrated area,`` stating that U.S. Coast Guard cutters and local law-enforcement boats were unable to get close to shore because of an underwater island, whereas, smugglers used shallow water boats.

The federal narcotic agents, according to Nelson, were ``incompetent.``

The smugglers knew the DEA`s whole campaign, Nelson said, adding that the DEA would not attempt seizures at night when waters were rough, ``because they didn`t think (the smugglers) made runs then, but that is exactly when they made runs because they knew the DEA thought the seas were too rough.``